Wanted: A Better Refrigerator

July 8, 1992|The New York Times

Electric utilities are turning up the heat in search of a better refrigerator by offering a $30 million reward to the first company to build it.

A group of 23 utilities that serve one-fifth of the nation`s households announced the prize on Tuesday. It would go to the developer of a refrigerator that would use up to 50 percent less electricity and no ozone-eating chlorofluorocarbons. Refrigerators and freezers use 20 percent of the nation`s electricity, and vary widely in efficiency.

The utilities, scattered across the nation but with strong representation in the Northeast and on the Pacific coast, serve about 20 million of the nation`s 94 million households. The group asked for bids from manufacturers, due in October, and promised to pick two semifinalists in December that would build prototypes by June.